Roadmap

Roadmap

confined within the walls

of a home in lockdown

my son is restless again

his plans for the rugby team dashed

he complains of the unfairness

of this bizarre year -

the year without school

without gym

without sport

I react with impatience

countering his story

with that of the college kid on the news

who has won

a basketball scholarship

whose career is now in the doldrums

how his fate is far more tragic

I later feel crushed -

a failure as a parent

ashamed at invalidating

my young son’s feelings

for laying on thick

my flawed logic

of there’s someone out there

who has it worse

but I have no roadmap for this

my own mind doing cartwheels

the weight of frustration

pressing on my shoulders

and all my experience

of four decades of living

rendering me no better

than the twelve year old

I try to soothe.

 Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney artist, poet, and pianist, of Indian heritage. She holds a Masters in English, and is a member of the North Shore poetry Project, and Authora Australis. Her recent works have been published in numerous print and online literary journals and anthologies including Ariel Chart, The Ekphrastic Review, The Pangolin Review, and Poetica Review, and are forthcoming in Unlost Journal, Ethel Zine, Otoliths, and elsewhere.